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Imported idea gains momentum

American social policy innovations are often greeted with suspicion here.

Most Canadians don't regard the United States as a model of progressive thinking. Moreover, ideas hatched south of the border often have a strongly entrepreneurial flavour.

But recently, housing activists, urban planners, academics and community leaders in the Toronto area have begun to champion a concept developed in Fairfax County, Virginia, 37 years ago.

It is called inclusionary zoning. It is a policy under which private developers must include affordable housing in all major projects as a condition of getting a building permit. Typically they have to sell 10 per cent to 15 per cent of whatever they're building at below-market rates. In return, they are offered lower development fees, increased density allowances and other regulatory benefits.

Developers, for the most part, hate the requirement.

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But it has turned out to be one of the most effective levers municipalities have to get affordable housing built. More than 400 cities, towns and counties in the U.S. have some form of inclusionary zoning.

No Canadian municipality has ever implemented the policy. One or two – Burlington, for example – have tried to pass bylaws enabling them to impose affordable housing quotas on developers. But the Ontario government, which has jurisdiction over municipal planning, blocked them.

Housing activists stayed on the sidelines until about a year ago. They didn't want to let Ottawa and Queen's Park off the hook for providing affordable housing. And they didn't consider moderate-income buyers – as opposed to low-income renters – a priority.

Cities weren't eager to take the lead either. Tangling with big developers was a headache they didn't need.

But after more than a decade of federal and provincial inaction, attitudes have begun to change.

Toronto has hired a consultant with expertise in inclusionary zoning to do a thorough analysis. The Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario, which represents urban planners from all of the province's major cities, has taken up the cause. Organizations such as the Wellesley Institute and the Cities Centre at the University of Toronto are promoting the idea.

Last month, 120 of the leading thinkers in the field gathered at the Sutton Place Hotel for an all-day conference on inclusionary zoning, hosted by the Wellesley Institute and the University of Toronto. The sponsors brought in three of the American trailblazers to talk about their experiences in Boston, Chicago and Santa Fe. And they invited representatives of the three levels of government, academe, the housing industry and the non-profit sector and citizens' groups to draw lessons that could be applied in Canada.

"We hoped our forum would provide detailed information about inclusionary practices and build some momentum," said Michael Shapcott, director of community engagement at the Wellesley Institute. "All indications are that it was very successful."

He is the first to admit that obliging developers to set aside a few units in their condominiums, apartment buildings and housing projects won't come close to solving the acute shortage of affordable housing in Ontario. It won't address the needs of psychiatric survivors. And it won't get homeless people off the streets. And it won't help most of the 123,000 families and individuals on the waiting list for social housing.

But it would give municipalities a new tool to alleviate the demand for affordable housing.

To clear the way, the Ontario government would have to amend the Planning and Development Act. Housing Minister Jim Watson has said he is open to the idea.

Toronto is likely to call for inclusionary zoning in its 10-year housing plan, which is to be finalized in early 2009. There is a similar movement bubbling up in British Columbia.

Among urban activists, there is still a deep reluctance to give Ottawa an excuse to shirk its responsibility. And there is a lingering wariness about the let's-fix-it-ourselves gusto that characterizes American social policy.

But the longing for progress is palpable. It is forcing people to rethink their preconceptions and look for answers in unusual places.

Carol Goar's column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

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